I read an interesting article recently on The Peach, an Australian website for young feminists. In it, author Shanrah Wakefield looked at the compulsion for some feminists to argue amongst each other about who did and didn't have the right to call themselves a feminist based on their actions, based on a recent move by Katy Perry to distance herself from the term. It was a thought provoking read, but I didn't agree with one of its arguments: that "every woman’s success is a contribution, in some form or another", and that "each time a woman achieves success on her own terms, she’s re-enforcing capability of the gender and she should be met with a round of applause."

I think it's a little more complicated than that. In the age of You Go Girl feminism, it’s become increasingly difficult for feminists to criticise the actions of other women without being accused of betraying the sisterhood. Our choices, we are told, should be honoured and respected because we are All In This Together and we must support each other in our various kaleidoscopic destinies. But the demonstration of feminism shouldn't be to sit in a Kumbaya circle and acknowledge the bravery involved in diverse decision making. Choice and the ability to freely make it is central to feminist ideology; but it doesn’t follow that all choices should be accepted as feminist acts and therefore given a free pass. Katy Perry may have achieved great success in the pop music world - but her 'contribution' to women's suffrage is entirely open to debate when she publicly chooses to discount feminism's influence while accepting a music award, apropos of nothing other than the apparent desire to ingratiate herself to those who think women are getting a little bit too grabby.

Unfortunately, there seems to be some confusion over where the concept of choice exactly sits in a feminist framework. Some time ago, I wrote an article about the radio presenter Jackie O and her complicity in propping up the sexist antics of both 2DayFM and her co-presenter Kyle Sandilands. At the time, Jackie O was allowing herself to be shamed on air for having gained weight, and bullied into losing it in a very public fashion while the mawkish fans of 2DayFM followed her progress (presumably from worthless fat loser back into acceptable version of womanhood allowed to wear a bikini).

Dara-Lynn Weiss poses with her then 7-year-old daughter Bea in Vogue magazine last March.

Advertisement

While the article received generally positive feedback (not a lot of people are in support of someone who sits there giggling while her male co-host calls another woman a ‘fat slag’, or participates in stunts that traumatise asylum seekers and 14 year old rape victims), there were a couple of commenters who argued in her defence: that because Jackie O had chosen to participate in this very public example of fat shaming, she was actually honouring feminism and everything it stands for. Similar conclusions were drawn when I highlighted the persistence sexism of Zoo Weekly’s Facebook page, and the women who chose to pose therein. When a friend recently criticised the decision of Dara-Lynn Weiss to publicly shame her daughter into losing weight and then write about her success, she was pompously asked 'when did it become okay to judge parenting choices?' On a more expansive scale, the capitalist structures that once sold products to women by highlighting the importance of being beautiful have now shifted their message to one of empowerment. No longer able to openly judge women’s inadequacies, we now find the beauty establishment selling improvement to women under the guise of ‘empowerment’ - as if all the feminist movement was leading up to was a world in which women would finally have the right to a spray tan.

Jackie O during an on air weigh-in. Photo: Fox.com.au/ Kyle and Jackie O

Choice, and the ability to make it, is not in and of itself a feminist act. Women are entitled to choose anything they like, just as men are. They are entitled to the same kind of bodily autonomy as men, and to the same kinds of choices that empower men to be the dictators of their own lives, whether or not it’s how they dress, who they sleep with or where they work. Celebrating choice as a feminist act in and of itself, regardless of what that choice might be, paints a very limited and patronising view of women’s rights and capabilities. We’re not children who need to be rewarded with a biscuit every time we have the fortitude to choose our clothes for the day. So we should stop behaving as if the act of getting up and negotiating life as an adult - as a man might do - is the equivalent of storming the barricades.

But - to confuse you further - the complexity of choice and its outcomes naturally change depending on who’s making them. Because we have yet to reach a state of equality or equity (and this can be even more difficult for women marginalised not just by gender, but also class, race and religion), the consequences of choice coupled with the accessibility of it become particularly significant. I would argue that access to choice amongst poor women (particularly in regards to career and education) is more fundamentally liberating than whether or not women are allowed to rip their pubic hair out. The former is something that can tangibly empower women - the latter is just a decision women make, no better or worse than any other. To conflate the two as markers of female empowerment (as if the mere circumstance of being entitled to spend money on a beauty regime that's achieved near blanket social sanction is revolutionary) is pretty dismissive of the vast capabilities of women.

So how does this come back to Jackie O and the complicated task of knowing when to accept choice, when to critique it and when to celebrate it? When do we acknowledge it as a feminist act, and when do we decide that it’s simply a choice - no better, worse or more admirable than any other? There are no easy answers, but a good indicator is intent. The choices that Jackie O makes to sustain her own radio career may be good for her, but they perpetuate sexism on a mass level. Jackie O’s powerful presence in broadcast media might be a win for feminism - but the choices she makes once in that industry might be the complete opposite. Shaming women (or your child) for gaining weight does nothing to further feminist interests, nor does sitting by giggling while your male co-host brutalises a woman on air because he didn’t like her review.

Being able to determine our own choices and destiny might be one of the pillars of feminism, but we owe it to ourselves to be a little more intellectually rigorous about how we champion those choices and analyse them. A choice is just a choice - it’s what we do with it that counts. Critically examining the choices of some women isn't a betrayal of the sisterhood (unless that criticism is spawned from conservative ideas of how women are 'supposed' to dress/behave/work/speak/fuck). To argue as such presumes a world in which women are all so delicate that every choice we make needs to be accompanied by a ticker tape parade. If the only thing standing between us and real liberation is the bravery it takes to purchase a Brazilian, a new set of breasts or the right to cover ourselves in cream and wrestle in a tub of jelly, then what exactly is it we’re fighting for?

9 comments

incredible article!! the only thing i would differ with you on is the removal pubic hair . i think it is a broader issue encompassing the influence of male-dominated pornography and the misconceptions of young girls about whether pubic hair is appropriate/sexy/clean. i know you were using it as an example of how the beauty industry markets empowerment, but i think maybe that particular example might be a bigger kettle of fish.

But actually so so brilliant!

Commenter

sarah9199

Location

Date and time

January 29, 2013, 12:52AM

I'm sure that for different women it falls into different catagories. Many women remove pubic hair purely for their own personal reasons, be it they like the feel, they feel it's cleaner, etc etc. There are also women who obviously do it due to pressure from male (or female I guess) partners. And I think we all agree that some women also do it due to percieved societal pressure, in part from porn. We might not agree on the scale of that, but I think most would agree it occurs.

This seems pretty distinct from a women who has basically been forced by a male dominated and hyper-masculine workplace to embarrass herself on national radio.

We've come a long way on pubic hair, when a woman is forced to weigh in to keep her job just because she's a woman, we've obviously got a long way to go there.

Commenter

Regularchap

Location

Sydney

Date and time

January 29, 2013, 5:24PM

Good article.

Just gotta laugh at that Katty Perry photo .... one wonders what her intent was with that one.

Commenter

Think

Location

Date and time

January 29, 2013, 11:05AM

I am a huge fan of black activist/rapper Chuck D. He would often be very critical of what black entertainers were doing (making songs about shooting other black people or acting dumb in comedies aimed at white audiences), but he would never be personally critical of any particular black entertainer in. I agree that not all choices made by women will be helpful to the position of women in general, but I would think it beneficial to direct the criticism to the choice, not the women making them.

Commenter

Jcarroll

Location

Sydney

Date and time

January 29, 2013, 11:44AM

The choosy choice choosers' rhetoric is borrowed from liberal ideology, and really has more to do with liberalism (an ideology serving male interest) than it ever had to do with feminist goals (liberation from male power and tyranny). Choice is also not some magical values-free zone, and individual gain does not automatically mean gains for women as a class. Actually, women have more chance at individual gain if the processes they employ support and reinforce the male-dominated status quo. Jackie O and Amanda Keller being an obvious examples within radio broadcast.

Commenter

LindaB

Location

Date and time

January 29, 2013, 12:28PM

Yes, feminism often seems to be confused with libertarianism,- 'individual freedom, the freedom to choose'. It's always interesting to pay attention to the choices that women are rewarded for making and the choices that we're punished for making. Watch how quickly some men suddenly become raving, impassioned feminists when it comes to the right of women to 'choose' to be a sex worker, stripper or porn star for example. Then watch their response when it comes to the 'right' of women 'choose' to be celibate, remain unmarried or childless or grow her arm-pit hair. Very telling.

Commenter

Lesley

Location

Date and time

January 29, 2013, 4:52PM

I think it's also important to look at what is influencing your choice. Yes you may choose to wax your pubic hair, but are you doing that because it's what you want, or because it's what you've been made to believe you want by our patriarchal society? Jackie O's 'choice' to go along with the pranks etc may be partly influenced by the fact that there are so few female announcers in commercial radio and she could lose her job for saying no. Some women do make choices totally of their own free will. Some women make choices influenced heavily by the expectations placed on them by society. And some women are unable to make any choices at all.

Commenter

AMG

Location

Date and time

January 29, 2013, 3:41PM

Honestly, the snake has eaten its tail here. A feminist writer criticising other women for not criticising other women for making choices that she personally deems to be "not feminist enough". I don't think I misread you, that is literally your argument, which is exactly why Katy Perry and other women don't want to self-identify as feminist -- it's for wont of not being associated with navel-gazing, trivial crap like this.

Commenter

JackieNo

Location

Date and time

January 29, 2013, 4:40PM

Jackie O gained a small amount of weight because of her pregnancy, what's Kyle's excuse for being even more overweight than she it? And why isn't Kyle on a public weight loss challenge too?

Commenter

FatKyle

Location

Date and time

January 29, 2013, 4:44PM

Commenting Policy

Daily Life is a proudly female biased website with content tailored to women. We encourage lively debate and conversation around our stories and while all opinions are welcome – we also have some guidelines to make sure everyone is treated with the respect they deserve. We love comments that articulate a different point of view, a witty insight, some humour or a shared experience. Our moderators will reject comments that personally attack the author or other commenters. We also won’t publish comments that are aggressive, sexist, racist or in any other way discriminatory or derogatory.

We hope these guidelines make the process of commenting on stories and reading the comments left by other users as enjoyable as possible. More details about our comment policy here.